"The Guardian" published a general paper from the All Souls, Oxford fellowship exam. It's a gruelling test that Keith Joseph passed and Hilaire Belloc failed, so it's not a perfect gauge of a person's worth.
You write an essay on three from a list of 34 topics. Here's my attempt, which probably shows I'm more suited to be a fellow at Ar Souls, rather than All Souls.
Q1 : "Is it immoral to buy a £10,000 handbag ?"
No. Not at all. As long as it's your ten grand, this is as close to a win-win situation as you will find in economics. The purchaser gets something that will impress other rich, selfish idiots and the seller gets £10,000. Selfish and stupid, but not actively immoral.
By the way, I love the choice of a handbag as an example here. Is it possible that most fellowship candidates will be male and unlikely to understand the utility of spending anything on a handbag ? And will they see that spending several billion on Trident and several tens of millions on a football player are much worthier subject for criticism ?
Wonder how many expensive paintings All Souls has on the walls, and yet they can only afford to sponsor two fellowships per year? Hmmm.
Q30 : Is string theory science ?
Yes - it's what scientist do, so it's science. Repeatable experiments are for wimps.
But I do think their time would be better spent working on a beetle that eats everything in a suburban garden that doesn't taste good in a pie.
Q29 : Why "hug a hoodie"?
(1) So his whole posse will laugh at him and call him a batty boy, innit.
(2) For warmth
1 comment:
Pure genius.
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